Health Ministry confirms new variant of COVID-19 in Nepal

KATHMANDU, May 18: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has confirmed that three variants of the coronavirus have been detected in Nepal. 

Ministry assistant spokesperson Dr Sameer Kumar Adhiakri,on Tuesday, said that the result of gene sequencing of samples collected from 35 districts showed that the B.1.617.2 variant  was detected in 34 samples while the B.1.617.1 variant was confirmed in a sample.The gene sequencing was performed at CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in India. 

Adhikari added that the B.1.617.2 is the variant detected in India in recent days while B.1.617.1 is a UK variant. Nepal first reported the Chinese variant last year. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier on May 10 classified the coronavirus variant first found in India as a "variant of global concern".

Issuing a public statement earlier on Tuesday, the ministry urged the people to adhere to public health protocols as the new variant is more infectious and deadlier to all age groups.